Federal government seeks to boost teacher pipeline through paid apprenticeships

(TND) — The U.S. Departments of Education and Labor are teaming up to tackle the nation's teacher shortages with funds and an emphasis on paid apprenticeships.

Officials believe that new registered apprenticeship programs for teachers can bring new folks into the pipeline and make higher-quality preparation more accessible.

Paid apprenticeships are often associated with trade professions, like plumbing or carpentry, but they’re growing in the world of education.

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said 21 states now have registered apprenticeship programs for teachers, up from just two a year ago.

“Teacher apprenticeships are a key strategy in our plan to Raise the Bar in education and improve learning conditions in our schools by ending the educator shortage and providing all students with great teachers who are prepared to succeed in the classroom from day one,” Cardona said in a news release.

They also announced new national guidelines for states and school districts to develop their own teaching apprenticeship programs.

Tara Kini, chief of policy and program at the Learning Policy Institute, said teaching apprenticeships offer an “exciting opportunity.”

“It's bringing the workforce development world together with the education world to try to solve this really huge challenge across the country of not having enough qualified teachers to teach our kids,” she said.

The Department of Education said last fall that nearly half of the country’s public schools had at least one teacher vacancy.

Over a quarter had multiple teaching vacancies.

And 4% of all public school teaching positions across the country were vacant at the time.

On top of that, the Learning Policy Institute said 47 states plus the District of Columbia had almost 290,000 teachers who weren’t fully certified for their assignments.

Kini said the “earn while they learn” apprenticeships offer candidates valuable in-classroom experience with mentor teachers either during or following college.

“To be able to significantly reduce the costs for candidates to enter a profession where they're making less than 80 cents on the dollar of what other college-educated professionals make is an important incentive for people to be able to enter teaching,” Kini said.

The Department of Education also announced new awards totaling more than $27 million to support these efforts.

Another $65 million from the Department of Labor will partially support registered apprenticeship programs in education.

Kini said teaching apprenticeships look different across the country, and industry stakeholders will have to monitor their impact as these new efforts develop.

Officials believe they could be a long-term strategy for strengthening and diversifying the teacher workforce.

“We really need to be attentive to how these programs are playing out across the country and learn from them what's working and what's not,” she said.